I had the pleasure of playing yesterday morning at The Oaks, a 1933 course in Covington, GA, whose origins trace back, at least in part, to Bobby Jones.
The course has just reopened its greens (within the last month, I think) after regrassing them with Champion Bermuda. This was the first time I had seen this grass, and it was impressive, to say the least. I was told the following, though I can't verify all of this:
1. It took only about 3 months to completely regrass all 18 greens. They killed the old Penncross Bent greens that had become infested with bermuda, threw out sprigs of the Champion and sanded, and let them grow in during the summer. I assure you, all 18 were perfect. Absolutely no bare spots, no evidence of fungus, and NO pitch mark scarring!
2. The cost to the club was around $100,000. I don't know much about the economics of this, but that certainly sounds reasonable.
3. The greens can run as fast on the stimp as most bent grass greens. They were at least as fast yesterday as average bent greens on daily fee courses, to give a rough estimate.
The grass looks like bent, but rarely leaves ballmarks. It definitely putts like bermuda in terms of limited break, but the effects of up vs. down grain on the speed of putts seemed much less than is normally the case with bermuda greens. Given the tremendous difficulty that we've had with bent greens in GA this summer, it would seem to be a great alternative for many courses to consider.
Anyone else have any experience with this strain of bermuda?